Routers Reviews

I prefer brass. The Porter Cable guides are fine, they install easily, center easily, and perform flawlessly,, Most of the time. Just once in a while though, they fail completely. Steel, no matter how you protect it, will eventually corrode. Mine turned white and rusted, not all over, but on one side or the other. My guides often get removed from the case and hauled out to the job-sites while attached to the router. Early, foggy mornings and those sudden summer-time cloud bursts, expose my tools to far more of the elements than I like. So maybe,, it's my fault. But brass just hasn't let me down yet.

Search "brass template guide set" and be amazed at the difference in price and the fact of the quality of these "no-brand" guides. Occasionally you may need to shine them up a little, but being solid brass, that's not a big problem. I've used both steel and brass on door hinge templates, dovetail templates, stair tread templates and strike plate templates. Brass just slides easier, smoother. On dovetail templates, especially plastic and soft aluminum the brass guides show less wear on the surfaces that the guides contact.

I'm sorry P.C. ,,, I can't recommend these guides.

I saw a review with a problem, the steel guides were too long and reached past the bottom of the dovetail template. With brass you can simply file the guide down to size to get the right length. Simple.

I've had a 42000 template guide kit since the mid 1990's. The set works OK, but my advice is to buy another brand. The P/C kit comes in a cheap & fragile hard plastic case that must have cost all of ten cents to make and the components are held in place with inexpensive cardboard separators. In addition, after a dozen years or so, every component in my set had corroded terribly -- the metal looked similar to very old aluminum storm windows, pits and all. It's not clear why this happened, since they've never been outside the basement workshop, and no other tools corroded. There is so much corrosion, there is significant resistance when screwing on the lock-nuts. Steel wool reduced the roughness of the corrosion, but the pieces still look dreadful.

The three largest guides in the P/C set are too long for numerous dovetail jigs, such as the Leigh jig. It's possible to modify them to work with these jigs, by hack-sawing the excess length off the offending guides, flatten the cut end on a grinder and sanding the edge smooth. A no-cost approach.

If you want steel guides, the Milwaukee's 49-54-0700 set comes with a nice case, and the steel finish looks a whole lot better than P/C's. Unfortunately, the three largest guides in the Milwaukee set are also too long for many dovetail jigs

In any case, brass is a better material for guides than steel, because brass glides slide more smoothly against a jig, and brass is easier on a rotating router bit if it ever touches a guide. Once, near a day's end of routing doors for hinges, my template's locking ring came loose, allowing the guide to touch the spinning bit, and the locking ring to rub against the router-bit lock nut. Since the guide and ring were brass, no noticeable damage to the bit or router occurred. Had I been using any steel template with a steel locking ring, the bit or router could have been damaged. Try "brass router template" via Goggle - and buy a kit made of solid brass, in a decent case, for less money than this set. Also check out the Woodstock International H3134 Brass Bushing set at Amazon.

The Tempalte Guide Kit is a perfect match with the Porter Cable router. The guides fit perfectly in the router base.

Poor adjustment on the base. Wish I hadn't burned the box so I could send it back.

This trimmer suffers from several critical defects:
The depth adjustment is difficult to use and worse loosens often during use unless you tighten the lock knob with a tool instead of your hands
The base doesn't sit at a reliable ninety degrees so one side of the router trims to a different depth than the other
The collet has an on-board lock that grabs the motor leaving you with no leverage to loosen it, i.e. you have just one wrench and holding the motor with one hand while turning the wrench with the other after a 30,000 rpm motor has tightend the collet isn't fun.
Not ready for prime time.

This router is poorly built. I send back the one I received for replacement and the new one had the same problems. On both routers the base was not square with router and they had high vibration. I also found the routers to be heavy, large and awkward to use. These routers deserve 0 out of 5 stars.

Got it in and tried to put knobs "Handles" on but the screws were too short. Emailed Grizzly but to confusing to deal with so I went to hardware store and bought longer screws and installed them in the knobs "Handles". Thier is alot of play in the plunge rods and until you lock it down the bit will wonder around. Looks and is built cheap but I guess for the price what can you expect. I will order the Makita 1/4" shank router and use this one only when I have to. Built cheap is cheap.

Have any woodworkers/carpenters used any of Grizzly's other products (nailers, staplers), and, are they any good?

This is my first router. I have had it around 2 years and have done many little projects with it. It has been pretty handy and the price was certainly right, especially considering its variable speed and all the extras it comes with.

There are heavier duty routers out there with more umph, but for a lot more money. Consider your potential use and if it isn't super demanding, this is a great router for you. I have had jobs were it was a little too under powered, like when doing a large radius roundover, but two passes did the job.

Note to previous posters: My base to collet when fully plunged is about 3/16".

OK. This router is inexpensive. Why spend so much on a real router? Because this one has plenty of probelms. It is a very light weight, low powered, tool that lacks precision. When plunge cutting, the base and motor-housing do NOT remain on course. The very light weight columns connecting the base to the housing do not hold with adequate precision. Thus the machine tends to cut "u" shaped mortises. There is a lot of wiggle in this machine.

It has no speed control. Only a quater inch collet, that has a tendency to come loose while routing. A very flimsy guard. Any one who needs a decent router does not need this tool. Save your money a get a good Makita or DeWalt.

(this is a follow up to the message from Jan 2002)
My third router has worked so far without failing. I have mostly used it to route pressure treated lumber.

I gave it only three stars because I had to get it replaced twice. Otherwise it would have been a 5 starrer.

Mind you, I believe my router has not been submitted to rigorous use.

So far i haven't had any of the problems other people mention in their reviews. i'm gonna say right now that this router isn't nearly as good as the porter-cable 8529 (my other plunge router) but the skil is the one i find myself reaching for the most. i don't reccommend using this router in a table (very hard to adjust that way) but as a plunge router its just fine.
my only gripe about this router is the plunge lock lever needs some improvement.

Black and Decker is the brand for you. As a neophyte woodworker without any guidance, I thought this was a solid brand. After mowing through various B&D drills, sanders, etc, I have seen the light. These are hobbyist tools. Unlike my other B&D purchases, I had time to return this one before I found out how lacking it was. This router couldn't spin any decent sized bits and bogged down easily on hardwoods. I would have to do miniscule increments on every cut. On top of that, the plunge mechanism would slip repeatedly. Returned it and bought another brand that I won't mention as this review is to warn you off this one - not sell another.

This is a decently designed router. The handle is pretty comfortable, the switches work well and feel nicely designed, and the dust extraction is great. It seems to have plenty of power, and the plunge action is very smooth. However, it has a couple of fatal flaws.

First, the base is not compatible with template bushings, and no one makes a compatible baseplate, although there are a few clear acrylic ones that you could drill your own holes in (patwarner.com and Lee Valley sell them). This may not seem important initially, but if you continue to work with the router, you will almost definitely want this ability.

Second, most other common attachments aren't compatible either, like the Jasper circle jig or an edge guide. Most router companies make their own edge guides, but not B&D. And all the common aftermarket guides aren't compatible either (for example, the Microfence). This won't be too much of an issue if you use this router in a table though, which I didn't do.

Third, it only has a 1/4 inch collet. It seems to have enough power for a 1/2 inch collet, and lots of other routers in this power class have the capability, although not necessarily at the same price.

If B&D added some compatiblity, I'd like this tool a lot more. As it is, there are much better options out there (Ryobi 180PL, Porter-Cable, Bosch, DeWalt...)

I was looking for a simple router that could do amateur routing. I wasn't looking for the expensive industrial 1/2" bit router. This router is the best value that I could have chosen, and I have been very impressed by it. The soft start and variable speed features are very helpful while the depth stop is amazing. You can stop it at any depth and pretty easily change to another depth with a built in ruler. One of the only problems I have found so far is that the line of sight can be bad when the router is down and unless you have good lighting, it is hard to see the bit to line things up sometimes. Another of the minor problems is that it is a bit heavy, but this only gets in the way when putting it into a router table, which you do not need to remove from the table to remove the bit. In another review, the person said that the router did not have attachments, but Black and Decker now makes the edge guide that works really well with the router. All in all, this is a great router and a great price for everything you get.

It is the height of arrogance (and stupidity) to make router bits without showing their size on them! All you get is a 5-digit part number and a big Freud logo! How do I tell if this is 9- or 7-degree dovtail bit! If this wasn't a Christmas gift, it would be going right back. And then I tried one of their bits and it was undersized. Don't go for the name try somebody else.

I have many Freud bits and saw blades. I have always been very happy with their products. Recently I added an Incra LS17 super system to my shop. Because of my past experience with Freud products, I purchased the Freud 8 piece set for Incra Jig. Much to my surprise both straight cut bits in the set were undersized, and produced unacceptable box joints using Incra scales. I returned the set and replaced them with CMT which work well.

Freud = Quality. I always buy Freud products. Top quality.

I bought my set a few years ago contempalting doing Dovetail joints. I just pulled it out to use with my PorterCable 1501 router. It would not fit my base plate. Fortunately I found my old porter-cable router that has a base fixed in one place excepted the guides. I tried the 3/8" guide and found it to be off-center or out of round. It would not fit in the router base. Probably had it to long to get it exchanged. I've bought a lot of other Freud products and have been pleased, but this one surprized me.

Recieved my guide kit in good order. All the pieces and parts were included in the case. I have only used it once on a hope chest I constructed. Everything seems to fit and work ok. Havent had a lot of experience with this type of routing so I don't have a lot to compare to. The machining of the parts seems fine and what little I have done went very well. So far I am very satisfied with Freud products.
UPDATE..Jan. 05...Ruined the 1/4 inch guide, when the stop collar vibrated loose, allowing the guide to move. Also messed up the bit. I have used this guide set a couple of times and haven't had this problem before. I found a new guide and stop collar at my local woodworker store, not very expensive. I have always hand tightend my stop collar but will use a pair of pliers from now on. Shouldn't have to but can't risk this happening again. Very scary and could have been very hazardous.

This set is great. Costs the same as Porter Cable, is as good as Porter Cable, if not better and you get the GOLD for free!

How can you go wrong?

This table is garbage. The thin sheet metal legs are not stable, the guard on the fence is sticky and gets in the way on wide bits such as kerf bits, the opening is too small, the mount is sketchy, and the extension wings are a nightmare to try and line up even if they aren't bent beyond recognition when it's delivered. It's your money... but I think you'd be wasting it to buy this piece of garbage.

Screws will strip easily, if your router does not fit their holes then the clamps that hold the router will vibrate lose and mess up your project. Just not worth it!

I opened the box and found the extension tables both bent to the point that who ever packed this set with the table must have been blind. The box was undamaged in shipping so it came from the manufacture this way.
I called grizzly and informed them of the problem and they are sending me a new pair (in 5 days) and apoligized.
The table itself looks very good and I can't wait to use it, have an extensive list of honey do's for the winter, snow will fly here soon.
Shipping was very timely 4 days from the time of order.

I have several Porter Cable routers, and they have been reliable and well built tools. That is why I chose this when I was looking for a lighter plunger router. The router is fine when in the fixed base, but the plunge base is a different story. There is quite a bit of slop in the plunge bushings which allow the router to angle from side to side as it is plunged, and it invariably binds in the process of plunging which forces you to rock it back and forth to complete the plunge. It is essentially useless for precision work. I had originally purchased it for exactly that; as a plunge router for use with guides on templates. The plunge base is now just a useless relic, and it is suitable for use with the fixed base only. If you're looking for a medium sized plunge router, look elsewhere.

The 890 router is a fine, quiet machine. However, the grip-vac and plunge bases leave a lot to be desired. I have only found one type of router operation in which the dust removal functions adequately-template routing of dishes. All other operations, free hand or on a table less than 10% of chips and dust are removed. Additionally, the dust port on the plunge base is too small for any vacuum hose/fitting I can findand I finally rigged a dodge 318 bypass hose to facilitate connection to my shopvac. Since dust and chip management were my primary for selection of the 890, I am very unhappy with this purchase. Yard sale bound. Maybe I should have waited for the arrival of the new MLCS

Overall, it's a fine system, and I'm glad I bought it.
However there are some astonishing design blunders:
1. On some of the plunge bases, the depth indicator is made of translucent plastic instead of transparent. This makes it impossible to read the depth indicator.
2. The spindle lock actuator on the plunge base is completely disfunctional. The motor unit cannot be brought down far enough to engage it.
3. With the dust shield in place, it's impossible to make above-the-table bit changes. Worse yet, with large bits, the entire unit must be removed from the table to change bits. Without the dust shield, above-the-table bit changes are quite easy; but you get a lot of dust sprayed around.

I agree with the previous reviewer that you get what you pay for. This applies to the customer service as well. Call long distance, request accessories (the router bit is not provided), and never receive them. This is what you should expect. if you do decide to go the low cost route, make sure your router is equipped with a template following set of guides, specifically 1/2 ID x 5/8 OD and that you have the 1/2 dia mortising bit handy as you will not have much luck acquiring them from Carey Template. Call Mike he'll help (not!). Anyway, if you don't have the template guide or the mortising bit you can obtain them for about $25 total from MLCSwoodworking.com

Easy to use once you figure it out. The only short fall is that you have to be careful when you put the nails in and take them out because the plastic breaks ,not too bad though.

I had to replace 8 doors; lining up the template on the old doors/hinges and then moving it [template] onto the new doors was simple. I took my time and every hinge lined up perfectly with those on the door jams. I used the same box nails from start to finish. One of the templates didn't come with the necessary spacers and the router bit was out of stock when I had ordered it. I called Carey Co., left a message, and I was called back the next day. Within three days, I received the spacers, a router bit, and they threw in a striker plate template, all at no charge. This is not an item to beat with a sledge hammer every day but, it does the job it was intended for with a little care.